Love is in the air!

In surprising places all over Portland you find Public Art. This sculpture is just off Broadway in the walkway between Safeway and Newport Seafood Grill at the Lloyd Center. These Lovers always make me smile … especially in Spring time.

The Hidden Treasure of Cannon Beach

Just south of the turn off from Route 26 toward Cannon Beach, Ecola State Park stretches along 9 miles of coastline and offers outstanding views overlooking Cannon Beach and Haystack rock. The park includes an 8 mile segment of the Oregon Coast Trail.

The trail around the point gives you the closest and excellent view of “Terrible Tilly”, Tillamook Rock Lighthouse. During winter and summer migrations, whales can be seen from several viewpoints

Although the name sounds like a bacterial infection (a combination of e-coli and Ebola) the name actually comes from the native Indian word, “ikoli” meaning “whale”.

A Rose (City) by any other (nick) name would smell as sweet.

From Wikipedia …

City of Roses

The most common, nickname for Portland is The City of Roses or Rose City. The first known reference to Portland as “The City of Roses” was made by visitors to an 1888 Episcopal Church convention. The nickname grew in popularity after the 1905 Lewis and Clark Centennial Exposition where Mayor Harry Lane suggested that the city needed a “festival of roses.” The first Portland Rose Festival was held two years later and remains the city’s major annual festival a century later. There are many other cities and towns known as Rose City or The City of Roses.

The nickname is often attributed to Leo Samuel,who founded the Oregon Life Insurance Company in 1906 (known today as Standard Insurance Company). Samuel, who moved to Portland in 1871, grew roses outside his home. He placed a pair of shears outside his garden so people could snip a rose from his garden to take for themselves. This encouraged other people and businesses to plant their own roses outside their homes and business. Today, roses are still planted outside the Standard Insurance Company’s home office building in downtown Portland.

This nickname inspired the name for the four-year-old female Asian elephant who arrived in 1953, Rosy. The first elephant ever to live in Oregon, she remained the matriarch of the Oregon Zoo’s herd and gave birth to six calves before her death in 1993. On August 31, 1994, her daughter Me-Tu became the first elephant in North America to have twins. On August 23, 2008, her granddaughter Rose-Tu (the surviving twin) gave birth to Samudra, the first third-generation elephant born in the United States.

On June 18, 2003, the city council unanimously approved a resolution adopting “City of Roses” as the city’s official nickname.

Bridgetown

Portland is known as Bridgetown or Bridge City due to numerous bridges crossing the Willamette and Columbia rivers.The river width spanned varies from 850 to 7,850 feet (260 to 2,390 m), and all of the bridges also span shoreline roads, paths, or other ground at each shore. In total, there are eleven bridges over the Willamette, including eight in the central area, and three over the Columbia.

Little Beirut

Staffers of former U.S. President George H. W. Bush used to refer to Portland as Little Beirut because of the protesters he encountered during his visits.

P-Town

Portland is sometimes affectionately called P-Town by some locals.

Rip City

The nickname Rip City is usually used in the context of the city’s NBA team, the Portland Trail Blazers. The term was coined by the team’s play-by-play announcer Bill Schonely during a game against the Los Angeles Lakers on February 18, 1971, the Blazers’ first season. In the days prior to the three-point field goal, Blazers guardJim Barnett took an ill-advised long distance shot that nonetheless went in, giving the new team hope for a victory against the powerful Lakers. Excited, Schonely exclaimed “Rip City! All right!” Schonely admits that he has no idea how he came up with the expression, but it became synonymous with the team and the city of Portland.

Stumptown

Stumptown was coined in a period of phenomenal growth in Portland after 1847. The city was growing so rapidly that the stumps of trees cut down to make way for roads were left behind until manpower could be spared to remove them. In some areas the stumps remained for so long that locals whitewashed them to make them more visible. They also used them to cross the street without sinking into the mud. Captain John C. Ainsworth commented that there were “more stumps than trees” in Portland in the early 1850s.

Portland’s “Secret” Coffee House

From Wikipedia …

Named after Russian composer Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Rimsky-Korsakoffee was one of Portland’s first coffeehouses. The classical music-themed business, serves coffee and desserts. It operates from the former living room of a reportedly haunted Craftsman-style house, built in 1902 and “nearly hidden from view” by the surrounding foliage.

The coffeehouse is owned by Goody Cable, who opened it for business in 1980 reportedly “to stop cleaning [her] house for music parties,” having hosted classical music events in her home for years prior.

Rimsky-Korsakoffee House ♦ 707 SE 12th Ave. ♦ Portland, OR 97214

(503) 232-2640

NBC News touts Portland’s celebration as the best

“It may come as a surprise to some, but Cinco de Mayo is considered a minor holiday in Mexico. And in the U.S., its historical and cultural significance has pretty much been drowned in shots of José Cuervo and frothy margaritas.There is one city, though, that really takes its Cinco de Mayo seriously – so seriously their festival’s URL is cincodemayo.org: Portland, Oregon. For the last 30 years, the city’s Annual Cinco de Mayo Fiesta, which kicked off Saturday, May 3rd, has attracted thousands of visitors.”

A neighborhood place with a unique recipe

Dana and Greg Boyce opened the Hawthorne Fish House (at SE 44th Avenue and Hawthorne) based on customer demand after the success of their Corbett Fish House in Southwest Portland.

Besides their Fish & Chips, we love their Calamari, Grilled Salmon and Caesar Salad with Salmon.

They use 100% rice bran oil — the tastiest of all the cooking oils — which is not hydrogenated and contains no trans-fats. They filter the oil twice a day to keep it clean.They simply bread the fish in brown rice flour, not a batter, so their Fish & Chips and Calamari are Gluten-Free.

The combination of clean, high-quality oil and a light dusting of rice flour creates a delicious and healthful serving of fish. This process actually seals and steams the fish. Done correctly, deep frying is a dry cooking technique that produces elegant, greaseless foods with crisp coatings and succulent interiors.